1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a portable terminal, and in particular, to a method and apparatus for using an electronic phone book of a portable terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
As communication technology develops, most individual users own at least one wireless or wired phone number. Therefore, various techniques have been explored to manage phone numbers for the individual users. One of the techniques is an electronic phone book for a portable terminal such as a personal computer (PC), a wired telephone, a cellular phone, or a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant). Such a portable terminal saves a plurality of names, addresses, and phone numbers entered by a user in association with each other, so that the user can select menu items using a display means, search the electronic phone book for an intended phone number, and automatically dials the selected phone number. Due to the advantages of being portable and convenient dialing features, the electronic phone book takes the place of existing phone books.
While the increasing memory capacity of the portable terminal increases the number of entries in the electronic phone book, only a limited number of phone numbers are frequently used in reality. However, conventional electronic phone book technology requires a user to search the entire electronic phone book by selecting many menu items in order to detect an intended phone number.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a typical electronic phone book search operation. As shown in FIG. 1, to search for an intended phone number, a user must go through a number of menu items (menu key→1. phone book→3. search by name→2. Tom . . . ). Accordingly, there is a need for a method of more readily searching for a plurality of phone numbers in an electronic phone book.